Why banks are still failing to get customer service right?

The latest figures from the National Customer Satisfaction (NCSI-UK) survey show that large banks are losing customers to smaller banks and building societies because the latter have closer relationship with customers and offer more personalised customer service.  

This trend was reflected in our recent research that explored and compared the views of UK consumers and business decision makers on customer service. The findings revealed a significant gap between what financial services providers are offering and the service customers actually need, especially when it comes to service personalisation. While almost half of the surveyed organisations claimed to offer personalised services, only  4% of consumers said they felt as individuals when contacting their service providers and a mere 2% of them trusted the advice they were given.

The high level of dissatisfaction with customer service could be partially explained with lack of effective software solutions that enable a 360 degree view of the customer and offer more satisfying customer experience. Almost half of the customer-facing staff that we surveyed could not see all accounts and products for customers on a single screen, along with previous communications. Not surprisingly, almost half of the surveyed consumers (42%) felt they knew more about products and services they have with a company than their provider does. Furthermore the results revealed that more than two thirds of organisations could not deliver a consistent customer experience across all communication channels. 

The stats clearly show that financial services providers are failing to get the most of customer interactions and struggling to offer service personalisation regardless of the huge investment in this area. As banks are under increasing pressure from regulators, customers and shareholders to improve customer satisfaction, service personalisation is quickly becoming the battleground for maintaining competitive edge in this highly competitive market. 

Here are a few tips on how financial services providers can improve customer satisfaction and make the most of each customer interaction: 

• Put the customer at the centre of everything that you do
• Learn from each customer interaction and empower customer-facing staff with the needed tools to better understand, meet and even anticipate customer needs
• Create consistent customer experience across all communication channels by using a single platform to capture, analyse and guide each customer interaction
• Engage with the customer and allow him to participate in the creation of  business processes and personalised products/services that specifically correspond to his needs
• Align business objectives and business processes with front line activities such as client on-boarding, customer service, marketing and sales
• Make the customer happy by creating the ultimate buying experience as opposed to simply focusing on sales